Modern digital television systems recognize the use of so-called virtual channels, which are channel designations that are different than the actual radio frequency on which the broadcast provider's signal travels. Specifically, the virtual channel is the channel number the broadcast station chooses to display on the user's television system, while the physical channel is a number corresponding to a specific frequency range. For example, a broadcast station that has branded itself as “Channel 20” may actually broadcast on channel 45 (i.e., within the band of frequencies associated with channel 45). In this case, channel 45 would be the physical channel while channel 20 would be the virtual channel. Compounding the issue is that broadcast stations even use different physical channels for different geographic areas. The use of virtual channel thus enables viewers to receive the broadcast station's signal by choosing the branded channel number regardless of their particular geographic areas, and regardless of the physical channel on which the station has decided to broadcast.
To properly make use of virtual channels, most modern television systems have the ability to perform an auto-program to search received signals in order to populate a channel map. This procedure is typically done when a television is first placed in service. This channel map enables the television system to limit the channels that are displayed or otherwise accessible to the user to only those channels that actually contain broadcast content.
For digital television in the United States and other regions, digital television channels are describe via meta data contained in Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) tables that are associated with the transport stream of the channel. PSIP data is based on the known protocol used in the ATSC digital television standard for carrying metadata for broadcast programming, and is normally relied on to help to find and tune digital programming. Specifically, the PSIP data defines virtual channels and content ratings, as well as electronic program guides with titles and descriptions that can be decoded and displayed by the television system. Thus, when PSIP data is available, this data is used during the auto-programming procedure to populate the channel map with the available virtual channel information.
However, as digital television becomes more widespread, many more field issues related to the PSIP data are being encountered. In many cases, the cause of the problem are errors made by the broadcast content providers (e.g., cable providers, terrestrial signal providers, etc.) themselves in transmission of the PSIP data. These field issues often result in service calls being placed to broadcast content providers' and/or television manufacturers' customer service centers. When these problems are due to faulty information in the PSIP data of a television channel, this typically also means that the customer is unable to view that channel despite the fact that correct and valid video and audio data is otherwise available on some other unknown channel. This can result in unnecessary user frustration and excess service costs. As a result, there is a need in the art for a system and method in which the negative effects associated with broadcast content providers' errors in PSIP data can be minimized.